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The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh will conduct a special enrollment of passports at the International Philippine School in Al-Khobar on November 4 and 5.

This is a continuation of the passport enrollment held last October 14-15 20101 under the Embassy on Wheels project.

Last October the project was able to serve OFWs in Al-Khobar. But due to overwhelming response from the Filipino community not all of the epassport applications were completed due to lack of time.

The Embassy on Wheels project of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh was started to provide consular functions to OFWs who are too far from the Riyadh office. Most of the staff who manages the project are volunteers and leaders of the different Filipino communities in Saudi Arabia.

Please refer to Philippine Embassy in Riyadh Website for further details.

It was shown on the news recently that six Filipinos met an accident in Afghanistan. It was a surprise for everyone because there is an existing Labor Deployment Ban in that country.

In case you are not aware, the Philippines has an existing Labor Deployment Ban in five countries. They are:

1. Afghanistan 2. Iraq 3. Lebanon 4. Jordan 5. Nigeria

This ban has been imposed since 2005 and has not been lifted up to the present day.

The reason for these bans is that these countries has been deemed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to be highly unsafe for workers. This is due to either an existing war with a neighboring country, a civil war, or tribal war.

You can refer to the DFA advisory here: http://www.dfa.gov.ph/main/index.php/ofw-deployment-bans

A recent survey by ING, a global financial services group, reveals that local investor confidence in the Philippine economy is the highest among Southeast Asian Countries and the second highest among Pan-Asian countries.

And this despite the continued slowdown of the US Economy and also European Economies.

A key factor sited that this is due to a healthy local economy.

ING says, “The Philippines, along with many emerging market economies, is increasingly becoming more resilient to external developments. Record-high OFW (overseas Filipino worker) remittances and the strengthening of the peso against the US dollar have made a strong case for consumption-driven growth,” ING said.

Once again OFWs are helping the country by having dollars earned abroad get spent locally thereby also helping local businesses.

ING Official Website: http://www.ing.com News Originally Reported at Business World Online (http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=19775)